General Care Discussion :: Water for RES

[cleopold]

Hi all,

What a great web site. A place to get questions answered and also to brag about my new baby turtles. Who are wonderful, by the way. But not very happy because I have not been able to build them a proper habitat. Poor babies.

Anyway I have an unbelievably basic question. Does the water for the tanks need to be treated in any way. I have been using distilled water (water that sits out for a couple of days). Do I need to buy some sort of treatment solution to get the chlorine out of the water?

I appreciate you guys helping a newbie. Spazz and Zee thank you too.

--Caroline

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Hello and welcome to Turtle Talk, my name's eddie

If you let the water sit out for a couple of days that should get rid of chlorine. How big is your tank? A 20 gallon tank would be suitable for your babys for about 3 months, 10 gallons of water per every inch of your turtle is what we and other sites go by. I'm guessing you have a 10 gallon tank maybe? I cant imagine someone leaving so many buckets of water out to treat something bigger than that. If you do not wish to leave water out, you can purchase water conditioner, made for fish at any pet store.

[SpotsMama]

As an alternative to letting the water sit out, a lot of us use Reptisafe by ZooMed. It's a conditioner that's made specifically for reptiles. You can find it in the reptile section of the store. It has additional things in it besides the dechlorinator that are beneficial.

[steve]

Chlorine isn't a huge a problem for RES but it's not good if you are using bio-media in your filter (which colonizes beneficial bacteria). But as mentioned, you can let the water sit 24 hours or use a water conditioner